In 2000s, Taiwan embraced a new wave of higher education development, as the government focused its investment in founding national research institutions. Riding the wave, National Taiwan University (NTU) had founded several research centers from 2003 to 2005, one of which was Research Center for East Asian Civilizations. In 2005, in cooperation with the policies of NTU as well as the Ministry of Education, these research centers underwent reorganization or structural changes; Research Center for East Asian Civilizations was expanded as what we are now: Institute of Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (IHS) on October 18, 2005.
From the year of its foundation to 2017, IHS had received the funding project “Toward Top Universities” granted by the Ministry of Education, and had been recognized as the “top research center” in the academia of humanities and social sciences. Its major missions were to execute research projects of large scale and to weave an intimate academic network of scholars from Taiwan and abroad. Then IHS had implemented six research projects: (a) Confucianism in East Asia, (b) Democracy in East Asia, (c) Psychology of the Self in East Asian Chinese, (d) Courts of Law and Juridical Inheritance in East Asia, (e) Commerce, Finance, Labor, and Productivity in East Asian Countries, and (f) The Development of Contemporary China and the Shift in the “Autonomy” of China Studies in the Rise of East Asia. Three research platforms were affiliated to IHS as well: (1) Digital Humanities, (2) Japan and Korea in the Rise of East Asia, and (3) European Union Studies.
As the “Toward Top Universities” funding project ended, IHS has initiated a new strategy of funding distribution and adjusted its administrative focuses and academic visions since 2017. IHS has transformed itself into an academic platform for cross-fertilization between various fields in humanities and social sciences. Raising and engaging key research topics, IHS invites outstanding scholars of different expertise to share their groundbreaking insights in seminars, workshops, speeches, and conferences, in order to kindle intellectual sparkles in our vision of “advanced studies.”
｜Presidents of IHS
Former: BAU Tzong-ho, HUANG Chun-chieh, KUAN Chung-ming, WANG Hung-jen (Acting), LIAO Hsien-hao, CHENG Yu-yu (Acting),
Current: KAN Huai-chen
｜Vice Presidents of IHS
Former: LIN Chien-fu, YEH Der-lan, SU I-wen, Kirill THOMPSON, CHEN Chao-ying, CHANG Teng-chi
Current: CHOU Chia-chen and KO Chia-cian
｜Our Mission
As an academic platform that brings together elite scholars and research institutions, domestic as well as overseas, to act on crucial research topics collaboratively, IHS acts as the representative of academic prominence for Taiwan in general and NTU in particular. Our mission is to foster interdisciplinary intellectual exchange, to integrate knowledge exploration and actualization, and to support and organize academic collaboration projects rich in originality and potential.
｜Our Strategies and Visions
Since the 21st century, the world has been changing in unprecedented acceleration. We see the responsibility of humanities and social sciences to relocate this world that gradually loses its balance through pursuing new frameworks in understanding this situation. When founded, HIS implemented three research strategies: (a) thinking from the perspective of East Asia, (b) research driven by values and beliefs rather than statistics and rationality, and (c) the significance of contextualization.
In 2019, new visions were carried out in order to advocate values in humanities and social sciences in face of this technology-dominated era: (a) the Post-West thinking: that which explores humanities amidst tradition and Wester modernity, (b) the Posthumanities: that which re-evaluate humanities as deeply impacted by science and technology, and (c) the Post-globalization: that which envisions humanities in perspective of migration and mixture.
In 2026, IHS initiated a new research project “Cutting-Edge Research Platform for Humanities and Social Sciences.” It comprises four research communities, each of which focuses on a certain research topic:
- International Relations: “International Relations from a Historical Perspective: Beyond Times and Borders”
organized and led by Professor WU Yu-Shan (Department of Political Science, NTU
- Migration: “Intra-Asian Mobility and Affective Practices”
organized and led by Professor HUANG Zhong-Yi (Department of Geography, NTU)
- Post-war Taiwan Culture: “Crossings: Post-war Taiwan and Cross-strait Cultural Interflow”
organized and led by Professor MEI Chia-Ling (Department of Chinese Literature, NTU)
- East-Asian Cultural Exchange: “Cultural Exchange in East Asia”
organized and led by Professor TIEN Shih-Min (Department of Japanese Language and Literature, NTU)